


The Konpeki Disaster

by Sunja



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Konpeki Plaza gone even more wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:41:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28391058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunja/pseuds/Sunja
Summary: Takemura doesn't leave the penthouse and instead finishes his scan. V plugs in the chip and she and Jackie are forced to flee. They are both killed. But V survives and ends up in Arasaka's custody.
Relationships: V & Johnny Silverhand
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	The Konpeki Disaster

V should have known better. This job was shady from the start, she just didn’t want to admit it. Stealing from Arasaka. And not just Arasaka, but Yorinobu Arasaka, the heir to the empire. What a fucking stupid idea. She should have known better. But the promise of riches and a place among Night City’s legends had made her reckless. 

And now, here she was, standing with Jackie behind a millimeter thin glass screen trying not to breathe too loudly. If they were noticed, they were dead. Yorinobu and Saburo Arasaka were saying their hellos while Smasher stood by the door and the bodyguard was scanning the room with eerily red eyes. When he moved on to the screen, and V was getting ready to shoot him with the gun she had grabbed from the nightstand, the emperor himself ordered the bodyguard to leave. V held her breath and shared a hopeful look with Jackie. Maybe they could get out of this after all. 

But the bodyguard bowed and respectfully refused. Saying that it was his duty to protect, and while Yorinobu may not be a danger, there still could be other threats. And, to V’s horror, the Saburo Arasaka inclined his head, leaving the bodyguard to walk to the side, continuing to scan. 

“Fuuuuuck……”, whispered Jackie. 

V held her finger up to shush him. They needed to move fast. The crate the relic was in would slow them down. As quietly as she could, V pressed the button to open the crate. 

Jackie was staring at her. “What are you doing?”, he mouthed. 

“We need to drop the case.”, she mouthed back, unsure if his optics could read lips. But she had no time to confirm if he had understood. She reached into the case and plugged the shard from its hold. 

“V, what are you doing?”, T-Bug asked over comms. 

V plugged the shard in behind her ear and waited for a few breaths. Nothing happened. So far so good. 

She opened her messages and quickly sent one to T-Bug. _Exit plan! Now!_

Jackie very quietly set down the crate. V readied her gun. 

“The windows. When you exit the pillar to your right. I can open it. Just say the word.”

V looked at Jackie. He gave a nod. She looked over at the Arasaka bodyguard that was just coming back to stand in front of the pillar. Smasher was still by the door. They’d have the pillar between them. It was the best chance they were going to get. 

“Now.”, she whispered and in the same moment saw the bodyguard’s eyes widen. 

V didn’t wait to see the bodyguard pull his gun, she hightailed it out of the pillar, Jackie on her heels. She fired a few times back in the room, but mostly so they’d take cover for a moment, giving them a few seconds to put bulletproof glass between them and the corpos. 

V moved around the building, heading for the fire escape, when there was a sudden scream from T-Bug and then static. 

“Fuck!”, V cursed. She looked back to the open window where the Arasaka bodyguard was leaning out, holding a gun. Then she glanced over her shoulder back into the penthouse just in time to see Adam Smasher level a rocket launcher right at where they were standing. 

“Jackie, JUMP!”, V yelled and jumped. She fell for only a few meters before landing on the steep slope of the building and sliding downward. By the yelling she could tell that Jackie was right behind her. There was a loud bang and V covered her head as glass began to rain down on them. And then they ran out of roof. There was a brief moment of free fall and V braced herself. She crashed feet first through the glass roof of a lower part of the building. The shards scratched her hands and she crashed into some pipes on the way down, falling heavily onto the grated floor. “Fuck…”, she heaved. Her vision flashed with warnings, her diagnostics letting her know about all the injuries she had just sustained. But there was no time to rest. They needed to move. Right now. 

V pushed herself to her knees, heaving with the pain, but she gritted her teeth and kept going. Jackie had crashed next to here and seemed dazed. 

“Jack?”, she asked. 

“Fuck, V…”, came a response. Jackie had his teeth gritted in pain. He was holding his side and V could see bumps stick out between his fingers, broken ribs probably. She wasn’t sure what would be worse, broken ribs or smashed chrome. 

“We need to go.”, she staggered to her feet and pulled Jackie up by his other arm. He groaned in pain and stumbled against her. V almost fell down, Jackie was heavy. But she couldn’t stop, not now. “Come on, buddy.”, she gripped him by his arm and belt and heaved. Step by step, they made it down the corridor. V focused on the door. If they could get to that door, they would be one step further to escape. Step by step, that was how they needed to take this. They could do it. They had to. 

And then a loud crash came from behind them. 

V nearly jumped out of her skin and spun around only to see Adam Smasher. 

“Oh no…” It was the only thing she could push out before Smasher raised his gun. 

“V, run!”, Jackie growled and pushed her behind him. V felt frozen, but she knew she needed to move. Jackie was too injured. She couldn’t move fast with him… 

A hail of bullets rained down at them. Most were taken by Jackie, the poor bastard, but one hit V’s leg. She gritted her teeth against the pain and began to run, only to realize that she wouldn’t get far with her leg. She was limping. There was only one thing left to do. 

Blaze of glory, V thougt bitterly. 

She gripped her gun, and with an angry yell started firing. 

The bullets bounced off Smasher’s cybernetic body without even leaving a scratch. She fired at his face, but he just raised a hand and the bullets ricochet uselessly again. 

“Fuck you!”, V yelled when she ran out of bullets. She had never been this scared in her life, but she refused to cower and beg for her life. 

Smasher laughed. Then he grabbed her by the neck, raised his gun to her head and pulled the trigger. 

_There were flashes of memories. One last concert. Saying goodbye to Kerry, telling him to do his own thing. Jumping in the helicopter with Rogue. Raining down bullets on Arasaka scum. Setting the timer and placing the bomb. Heading for the terminal. Adam Smasher crashing down. Watching the mushroom cloud from a distance. Saburo Arasaka, the emperor. And then…_

_Death._

_A man stood in the weird blurry constructed space._

_“Who are you?”, he asked._

_But who was he?_

V gradually regained awareness. She was in pain, pretty much everywhere. Someone was holding her hand. Checking her pulse? Or her cybernetics? 

V squeezed the hand back, to let Vik know she was still alive and kicking. 

The grip on her hand tightened in surprise and she heard a startled curse in a language she didn’t speak. Did Vik have company? She always woke up back at Vik’s when things went badly… so who…?

V whimpered with the pain, but forced her eyes to open. 

As soon as she did she knew something was wrong. The lighting was different. This wasn’t Vik’s. She turned her head to look at her hand and found herself staring at the Arasaka bodyguard. 

“Fuck…”, she pushed out as she remembered what had happened. She looked around further, noticing she was lying on the coffee table back in the penthouse. Behind the bodyguard she could make out the blurry shapes of the two Arasakas and Smasher by the door. V tried to shake of the bodyguard’s hand and move, but he easily pressed her back down. 

“She is still alive.”, he announced to the room. 

“How?”, Smasher asked immediately. V shuddered at the anger in his voice and instinctively tried to get away, but the bodyguard’s grip on her was to strong. He reached in his coat and pulled out a booster. V blinked with surprise as he jammed it into her chest. 

There was a second of pain, and then, blissfully, V could breathe freely again, her pain fading to the background. The relief brought tears to her eyes, but only made her realize just how fucked she was. 

“Stay still.”, the bodyguard ordered and his eyes glowed red. He was scanning her, V realized. Her own diagnostics were telling her that she should be dead. And most likely would be soon. He seemed to come to the same conclusion. He turned to the two Arasakas. “Arasaka-san, if you want her to be able to answer questions, she must get to a ripperdoc quickly.” He was speaking Japanese now, but V’s optics were able to translate. 

She couldn’t hear an answer, but the bodyguard nodded and looked back down at her. “Do not fall unconscious.”, he ordered in slightly accented english. 

V didn’t know what to make of the situation. On the one hand, they apparently wanted to save her life. This was confirmed when the bodyguard slid his hands under her shoulders and legs and lifted her, carrying her to the elevator. 

On the other hand, what could possibly be good about being saved by the Arasaka coorperation, especially the actual Arasaka family? If she ever got out of it, she doubted it would be without signing some kind of contract that would basically make her their property. But even that was big if. Maybe they’d just make her answer questions and then kill her. 

The bodyguard carried her easily. Prime chrome, V’s brain supplied helpfully. V wondered if his whole body was the same sleek cybernetics as his neck and optics. But there was still warmth coming from his chest, so there had to be at least some human left there. 

V tried to watch were they were going, but her vision began to swim. So she tried to focus on the guard’s heartbeat. He had one, she could hear it. It was slow and steady. V listened to it and closed her eyes. She felt warm now. Almost cozy. 

She drifted off to the sound of curses as the guard realized she was fainting. 

V flashed in and out of consciousness for what felt like an eternity. The first time there were two men in white coats who were fixing her. The second the light was dim and no one was around. The third, the doctors again. V tried talking, but couldn’t make her lips move. 

The next time she saw the bodyguard, leaning over her. He looked both curious and concerned. 

Then when she woke up again, this time more fully, she was sitting in a chair in a mostly empty room. Mostly, because there was a man leaning against the wall opposite to her. A man she hadn’t seen before. 

“Who are you?”, V pushed out and coughed. Her throat felt dry. 

_“Shut up.”_ , the man said and pointed at the camera in the corner. 

V looked at him questioningly. 

The man crossed his arms. _“I’m in your head. They can’t see me. So it would be better if you didn’t talk out loud.”_

As if on cue, the man glitched like a screen with broken graphics. 

Weird. V had never seen things before. But then again, she had also never come back from the dead before. It was probably all the damn chips fault. 

_“You got that right.”_

Great, he could hear her thoughts. That wasn’t weird at all. Or a huge invasion of privacy… 

_“So who are you?”_ , she asked. She realized now that he had to be the guy from her… visions? Memories? What she had seen when she was dead. Arasaka Tower. The bomb. 

_“Damn right. I’m Johnny Silverhand, the guy who blew up Arasaka Tower. And you are V. The small time criminal who thought she could steal from Arasaka.”_

Yes, well hindsight was twenty-twenty. V looked around the room. Apart from Johnny and the camera, there was only a mirror. Had to be one-way. 

V tried to run system diagnostics to see if she had actually been fixed up, only to notice that nothing was happening. Her vision was normal, but her scanner, her optics… none of them worked. What the fuck had they done?

_“They shut off your cybernetics.”_ , Johnny commented. 

V shot him a glare. She had noticed. No cybernetics meant no scanning and no hacking and no translating from japanese. It also meant the few body enhancing cybernetics she had were offline. She tried moving her hands, but they were shackled quite securely behind the chair. 

V sighed. She’d just have to wait for someone to come talk to her. 

_“I have a feeling it won’t be long. They’ll want to interrogate you.”_ , Johnny predicted. 

The door clicked. 

_“Guess you’re right.”_ , V told Johnny. 

The door opened and the bodyguard walked through. V would bet a lot of money that one or both Arasakas were standing behind the one-way mirror. 

The bodyguard had brought a chair with him that he placed in front of V. He sat down. 

“What is your name?”, he asked. 

“What’s yours?”, V shot back. She didn’t feel like being helpful. 

“Do not mistake us saving your life as compassion.”, the bodyguard reprimanded her. “I am the one asking the questions.”

Except, that didn’t really work for V. Sure, she wasn’t exactly in a position to make demands, but maybe she could still work something out. This guy seemed like he’d prefer things to go smoothly. 

V smiled a pleasant smile. “Alright, I get it. I don’t make the rules, you do. That’s fine. Why don’t we make a deal. I tell you what you want to know, and you tell me what the fuck happened to me.”

The bodyguard studied her for a few moments. Then he inclined his head. “That is acceptable.”

“Alright. I’m V. Will you tell me your name, or am I supposed to call you Saburo Arasaka’s bodyguard forever?” V leaned back a little, crossing her legs as if this was a perfectly normal conversation and she wanted to be here. 

The guy narrowed his eyes, but after a moment he answered. “My name is Takemura.” 

_“What the fuck are you doing, V? You can’t give in to this Arasaka scum!”_ , Johnny commented from where he was pacing behind Takemura. 

_“Dude, I literally know nothing interesting. Jackie is dead and Dexter would sell me out faster than I can say ‘fixer’.”_ She looked at Takemura, satisfied to finally know his name. _“Besides, it’s working.”_

“Who hired you?”, Takemura asked. 

“My fixer is Dexter DeShawn.” If he wanted to know more, he’d have to ask. “What does the chip do? It brought me back, didn’t it?”

Takemura nodded. “I am not a doctor. But I was told the chip contains an engram of the personality of a terrorist.”

V glanced at Johnny. He seemed mad. “I’m not a terrorist. Arasaka are the ones creating the terror.”

V tried to hide her amusement. This whole situation was so fucked up, she couldn’t help but finde it a little funny. 

“This engram started rebuilding and rewriting your brain when you were shot. It brought you back to life, but it will also kill you. In time.”, Takemura continued. 

“How much time?” V wasn’t ready to die. Especially not after just escaping death. 

But Takemura didn’t answer. “Where did DeShawn get his information?”

V took a deep breath, trying to calm herself after the information she’d just received. 

“The client’s name was Evelyn Parker. But I doubt it was all her idea.” While V didn’t really mind selling out Dexter, she felt a little bad for giving away Evelyn. She had undoubtedly known what she was getting into, but V wasn’t so sure she’d know how to get out of it. 

But she had other things to worry about now. “How much time and how do I stop it.”

Takemura looked at her with pity and V narrowed her eyes. 

“A few months, probably. And there is no stopping it. The engram is overwriting your brain. By the end of it, you will be gone and all that’s left will be Johnny Silverhand.”, he explained coolly. 

V looked at Johnny. _“Over my dead body.”_

_“Looks like that’s the only other option for you, kid.”_ The bastard was smirking. 

_“Fuck you.”_

“Now, how did you get into Konpeki Plaza and the penthouse? A full report, please.”, Takemura asked, but it sounded like an order. V sighed and began. 

She recounted meeting Dexter, getting the flathead from Maelstrom, watching Evelyn’s braindance recording, then going undercover with help from T-Bug. She didn’t tell Takemura her name, she just told him she was their netrunner and she was flatlined in the attack. Then she recounted hacking the security feeds, sneaking into the penthouse, finding the relic and then hiding in the pillar. 

“And that was when everything went to shit.”, she finished. “I plugged in the chip so we could ditch the case, and then we ran for it. Unsuccessfully.” 

Takemura nodded. “I see now. You were ill prepared.” 

V scowled. Ill prepared? “Hey! It was a solid plan and if you and Saburo hand’t arrived, we’d have been fine! And we got the chip, so we got pretty far.” … the chip. Now that she thought about it, why did she still have it? Why hadn’t they removed it?

“By the way, why haven’t you removed the chip yet? Your bosses probably aren’t happy I have it, so why is it still in my head?”, she demanded. 

Takemura looked at her calmly. It reminded her of a father watching his child have a tantrum. A bit amused and hella condescending. “Because removing it would kill you. It was preferable to leave it where it is until you answered all our questions.”

There was a moment of silence. They hadn’t removed it because they wanted answers. And V had just given them all the answers. 

_“Well done, dipshit. Now you die.”_ Yeah, Johnny wasn’t helping. V was beginning to think death might not be a bad idea, maybe better than living with an annoying ghost insider her head. 

Except of course she didn’t want to die and Johnny knew it. 

Time to try and talk her way out. 

“So what? Now that I’ve answered your questions you kill me?”, she asked. 

Takemura shrugged. “That is not my decision to make.”

V nodded. “Right. It’s the decision of whoever is behind that mirror.” She looked at the one-way mirror, but could of course only see her own reflection and Takemura. Funny, Johnny didn’t show up in the reflection. 

“Of course you could kill me. But, you have nothing to lose if you let me live.”, she told the mirror. “Think about it. If you kill me, you get your chip back. But if you let me live, well, I can track down whoever hired Evelyn. Maybe they can find a way to seperate me and the chip. If they do, I’ll gladly give you back the chip. If they can’t find a way to stop the chip from overwriting my brain, I’ll just be gone and you can still remove the chip. But you’ll also know who wanted to take it in the first place. You’ve already hacked my cybernetics. I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard for you to monitor me even if I leave here.”

“What is to stop us from going after Miss Parker’s employers ourselves?”, Takemura asked. 

V smiled sweetly. “People in the city hate Arasaka. They won’t tell you shit. But they’ll line up to help poor little me who was fucked over by the corpos.” 

Takemura looked at the one way mirror pensively and after a few moments his optics lit up with a message. He looked at V. “I shall return shortly.”

And with that he stood and walked out the door. 

_“You think they’re going to go for it?”_ , V asked Johnny, who had plopped down in Takemura’s chair. 

_“No idea. But it’s a bad fucking deal.”_ Johnny leaned back and started smoking a cigarette. 

_“Well, better supervised than dead. I can still find a way out of it this way. Death is pretty fucking permanent.”_

_“Didn’t take you to be afraid of death.”_ Johnny raised an eyebrow. 

“I’m not.”, V confirmed. “I’m just not done living yet.”

They fell silent. V, determined to be as unimpressed as possible, shuffled across the floor with her chair until she could put her feet up on the other one. Johnny huffed and made room. V forced herself to relax. 

The minutes ticked by. 

After what felt like an eternity, but was probably closer to half an hour, the door opened again and Takemura and a doctor entered. 

“Your proposal has been accepted.”, Takemura informed her. “You will be implanted with a tracking chip which will also monitor your vitals and we will retain a connection with your cybernetics.”

V nodded. “Fine with me.”

Takemura nodded at the doctor and he pulled out a syringe and knelt by V’s side. “I’m implanting the tracker behind the relic to monitor it’s integrity as well.”, he explained. 

So she couldn’t have it removed, what was V understood. She bit down on her anger and let him do his thing. She didn’t want to be monitored by Arasaka. She didn’t want to lead them to whoever wanted to steel the chip. But if it was the only way to stay alive, she had to take it. 

When it was done she looked at Takemura. His optics glowed for a moment. “The chip is functional.” With a nod, the doctor was dismissed. Takemura looked at her. “I will be your handler. You will report your progress to me daily. I can see what you see and I have control over your cybernetics. If you try to resist, I will turn them off and a team will be sent to collect the chip from you.”

V grit her teeth. Fuck, she hated this. Her hope of getting out of this alive and on her own terms was dwindling quickly. 

_“You’ve made your bed…”_ , Johnny commented in a sing-song tone. 

What an asshole. He didn’t have to rub it in. It wasn’t like she’d had other options. 

She gave a curt not to Takemura. He froze for a moment, probably using his cybernetics, and then suddenly, blissfully, V’s optics went back online. Diagnostics told her she was fine and that she had a new contact added to her list. Goro Takemura. V made a mental note to change it to ‘My Personal Stalker’ as soon as possible. But he’d probably see that, so maybe not. V was so screwed. 

“I’m curious, can you see Johnny now?”, she asked. Especially since Johnny had gone on to bang the back of his head into the wall. 

“No.”, Takemura answered. “You do not actually see him, your brain just interprets it as such.”

V nodded. “Great! At least Johnny has some privacy.”

Johnny gave Takemura the middle finger and V grinned.

Takemura walked behind her and after a moment, V’s shackles clicked open. She rolled her shoulders for a moment. It felt good to move again. She rose. 

Takemura stood in front of the door. “You are not to contact Dexter DeShawn. I will deal with him. You will contact Evelyn Parker and find her employer.”

V nodded. “Fine with me.” She hadn’t been planning on talking to Dexter anyways. She wouldn’t dare show her face with what she’d just agreed to. 

“Follow me.” The door opened and Takemura strode out. V followed him through sterile looking corridors until, finally, they reached a door that led outside. V closed her eyes and enjoyed the sunlight on her skin. 

“I expect your first report tomorrow evening.”, Takemura told her. 

“See you then.”, V answered, and walked away. This whole job had been a disaster. But maybe, just maybe, she could still find her way out of it.

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, different setup, but a lot of the story (e.g. VDBs) can still happen. Also V can build a friendship with Arasaka Takemura. Some funny things can happen, like V faking a medical emergency so the Arasaka retrieval team will come rescue her ( _the chip..._ ). The possibilities are endless...
> 
> Let me know what you think!


End file.
